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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

'Riding to Finish'

Seeing as how my newspaper's regular website archives are currently unavailable because of the transition to a new format, I wanted to post the article, "Riding to Finish," here. I was honored with a Press Club of Western Pa. Golden Quill Award for the story, about a local man living in Italy who battles his multiple sclerosis by competing in insanely-long ultramarathon bike races:

Italian film director Lucia Marani was immediately
captivated when her father began telling her about a man he met the day after
Christmas in 2007. The man was riding his bike in the pouring rain along the
Tyrrhenian coastline.

“My father told me about this ex-Olympian baseballer for
Italy, Italian-American, struck with (multiple sclerosis), preparing for a
legendary bike race in France… I was already captured by his story,” she said.

Marani’s
father had met Penn Hills native Tony Lonero, who has dual citizenship and has
lived in Italy since the late 1980s. Marani is hoping that both Italian and
American film audiences will be equally captivated by her documentary “Ride to
Finish,” about Lonero’s extraordinary life.

Lonero’s was already quite a story,
even before the events that inspired the documentary. He was the youngest boy
ever to play American Legion baseball in Penn Hills. Between 1978 and 1981,
Lonero led the Chipola Junior College Indians to two state final appearances,
and was awarded a full scholarship to Louisiana State University. In 1982,
Lonero played professional baseball in Italy with the Nettuno Indians, who are
essentially the Yankees of Italian baseball, having won 18 championships since
1948. Lonero was also a player on Italy’s 1984 Olympic baseball team, which
finished fifth. Since retiring from baseball in 2000, Lonero has started an
Internet design and hosting company.

The story could stop there, but it doesn’t.

Lonero was
diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 10 years ago. “In 2001, I had come home from
walking and was doing some stretching, and I fell over,” Lonero said. “I
couldn’t get up and my leg wasn’t working. That was the first symptom.”

Because
of the lesions on his spine, Lonero said he was unable to run or walk for
exercise, but one day he discovered that, for some reason, riding a bike did
not cause any inflammation or pain. “My doctor said, ‘Do what makes you feel
good, but you gotta move,” he said.

That was 2002.

By 2003, Lonero was
participating in the 776-mile Paris-Brest-Paris cycling ultramarathon, one of
the world’s oldest cycling events. In 2003 alone, he biked more than 1,580
miles.

“Tony’s story is so incredible not because he has MS, but because he has
a different approach to the illness,” Marani said. “He lives so intensely;
every moment is precious. He never stops, he never resigns, he never regrets.

“Filming
Tony was great fun, although it was a very demanding project. Following a
cyclist day and night, rain or sun, for days, no stop, is really hard, but it
makes you understand how deep the motivation is that moves people like Tony.”

Some
of that motivation has also come from Lonero’s mother, Plum resident JoAnn
Bary. In fact, when it comes to the number of miles traveled, Bary may give her
son a run for his money.

“I used to be a marathon runner,” Bary said. “But I
ended up with some stress fractures, so cycling was easier on my joints.” Bary
started cycling at the age of 50. At age 69, she completed a 3,000-mile bike
trek the entire width of the United States, from California to Florida. And
though they’re separated by thousands of miles of ocean, Bary and her son even
got a chance to pedal side-by-side.

“For Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary (in
2008), there was a cycle relay from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh, to carry
historical documents to the Point for the big celebration,” Bary said. “I was
talking to one of the PNC (Bank) representatives who was organizing the relay,
and I told her my biggest dream was to do a race with my son. Before I knew it,
she told me, ‘We’ll bring him home.’”

Bary said PNC paid to fly Lonero home,
and he was able to bike from Cumberland to Frostburg, Md., with his mother.

“We did the leg together at two in the
morning,” she said, “I just said, ‘Well, you can shoot me now, I can die
happy.’”

“He’s the most persistent person I ever met in my life,” De Luca
said. “I think not just cyclists, but all of us, can learn from him. With the
disease he has, most people would not even think of doing an extreme-distance
bike ride, but he does, and he does so with such a passion and dedication that
it sets new standards in expectation for everyone, healthy or not.”

Lonero is
setting new standards for himself as well. He is already gearing up for the
2011 Paris-Brest-Paris event, but depending on how he feels, Lonero plans to
partner with one of his closest friends in Italy, Paolo Bronzetti, and attempt
the annual Race Across America, held in June and billed as “the world’s
toughest bicycle race.” Lonero said he plans to enter the 3,000-mile, 12-state
marathon and raise money for multiple sclerosis research along the way. If he
is successful, he would be the first person with MS to complete the race.

Perhaps
the most amazing thing about Lonero? He would give it all up at the drop of a hat.

“The movie’s great, the bikes and the sponsorship and the support I’ve gotten
is great, but I’d give it all back to wake up without MS someday,” he said.

Marani
said a firm release date for “Ride to Finish” has not been set yet — Lonero
attended a showing on Jan. 22 in Marani’s hometown of Rome — but she is hoping
the documentary will have a spring 2011 premiere in Italy, and an English
version is in the works for release in the U.S.

“‘Ride to Finish’ is not just a
motto (with Tony), but a sincere philosophy of life,” Marani said.